The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-04-29
CALIFORNIA CATTLE KINGS.
Some Of the snobs and snobocraoS az the
Pacific Coast.

some OF the Snobs ana 6nobocracS az ths
Pacific Coast.
San Francisco Letter to Post-Dispatch.
This is the land ofluck, and fortunes
favors, like the rain, fall pretty much
alike on the just and the unjust. Of all
the kings, l have seen up to date,
whether mining, cattle or railroad king,
the last-named go to the front in the
matter of assumption and ridiculous
self-importance. 1t is small wonder
that Californians detest the railroads
the real wonder is that the antagonism
between the people and corporations
has not gone to sanguinary extremities.
Fortune has favored some shockingly
unjust men, and they abuse their power
and position very much as one might
suppose Warren Hastings did his as
tendency in India.
The magnateS here are veritable ma
bobs, and their attendants even assume
a languid superciliousness to the last
degree presumptuous and insane. A
millionaire whose interest lies largely
with the roads assured me that those
corporations had entirely overdone the
extortion business, although he believed
their enemies had, in some instances,
unnecessarily abused them. At the den
of railroad king all the underlings,
and they are legion, come and go at the
call of an electric bell, and the autocrats
are as difficult to approach as the Czar
of Russia, but when one meets them
there seems to be little in the intellect
uai or general ability to warrent their
exclusiveness. Their homes are places
their grounds are Shaw's gardens, and
their attendants and equipages are gor-
geous and innumerable. The cattle
kings Of the coast, Miller and Lux, are
rated at SO, 900, 900 to $40, 600, 900, and
were poor men twenty years ago. Mr..
Lux told me that they had about 80, 900
head Of cattle and 115 900 head of sheep,
of which latter theykill 6, 900 per month.
They own an irrigating canal worth
81, ,000, 200, fences 800 miles in length
fortune In itself; in California 600,000
acres of land; in Nebraska 10000 acres
and $1,000 acres of alfalfa grass. They
lately bought 5000 cattle in Nebraska,
with large land and water privileges.
Speaking of ranches and herding, he
said:
''Our free grass is matter of the past.
The Legislature is against us. We are
compelled to take care of the stock. If
our cattle do any damage at all we must
pay heavily, as the people are prejudice
sd against any one they may be pleased
TO call monopolist. And yet, by their
severe measures they are constantly en-
hancing the price of meat. We are COM
PEELED to buy land and fence it, which in
wolves vast outlay ofmoney away. They
must build fences anyway, and, if the
smaller holders would fence securely
against stock, we could Craze at less
expense and they would have cheaper
meat, but you can't make near-sighted
man see long distancehe must pay
for his spectacles. California, as q
grazing State, is thing of the past.
And then, you see, we are heavily tax
ed. We are rated arbitrarily at fix
ed sum per head, and there is no dodg-
ing or securing revaluation at lower
figure. We are interested largely
in Oregon, Nebraska and Montana,
and in everything that pertains
to the cattle interests Of those
localities, and will either be pres
ent in St Louis personally or by repre-
sentative. The convention is neces-
sity to the business, and no cattleman
should fail to lend his countenance or
counsel; we must stand together or all
will suffer. And the people, the con-
sumers, viii suffer. / have no doubt
that if the citizens of the United States
could understand the matter, they
would see that their interests and ours
are identical.
enc thing has hindered the growth
of the cattle interest, which as hurtfuI
influence will, to great extent disap-
pear after the convention In st. Louis,
and that is the timidity Of capital with
tespect to cattle growing. Formerly
banks and bankers only loaned to cat
tie man at rates Of interest which no
other business could pay, and the con-
sequence has been the ranchmen have
had to thrive under grievous loads.
Now that the matter has become better
understood the cowman gets more rea-
sonable rates, but even vet the feebler
men are unfairly death with, and they
must all look to the convention and its
result for relief from many discrlmina-
lions against them.
y